Seek The Lord

Asa, the king of Judah, started out “good and right in the eyes of the Lord.” He sought God’s help when the Ethiopians attacked them, and the Lord smote them (v. 12)! He obeyed “the prophecy of Oded the prophet” (2 Chr 15:8), to put away the idols and renew the altar of the Lord. However, when “Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah, and built Ramah” (2 Chr 16:1), to stop the flow of traffic between Israel and Judah, Asa sent silver and gold to Benhadad king of Syria and asked him for help. Instead of relying upon God, Asa trusted his ungodly alliance. Therefore, God sent “Hanani the seer” (2 Chr 16:7), to prophesy against him for his actions. But Asa got angry and imprisoned the seer.

When Asa was afflicted with a terrible disease (2 Chr 16:12), he never sought the Lord until his death! Folks, no matter how wealthy, how intelligent, how influential, how strong, or how successful your friends are, you must never rely on people (Jer 9:4), or the material things of this world (Mk 4:19). We should not even trust our own heart (Prov 28:26), because it is “deceitful” (Jer 17:9)! We need to only “trust in the Lord” (Prov 3:5), and He promised to direct our steps (Prov 16:9). We must always seek the Lord first (Mt 6:33), and seek godly counsel (Prov 24:6).

 Then we can ask others only as God gives us wisdom (1 Cor 2:7), and direction from His word (Ps 119:105). As bible-believing Christians, we must maintain our loving fellowship with our Lord Jesus (1 Jn 1:7), by separating from sin and worldliness (1 Jn 2:16), and by not touching “the unclean thing” (2 Cor 6:17). Surely, we are still in contact with the world around us, but we should avoid the contamination of their sin and ungodliness (Eph 5:3). We are to reach them with the gospel (Prov 11:30), and “shine as lights” (Php 2:15)! God bless you!

-Pastor Melito Barrera